Who Dunnit?
by Pataney
Summary: When the Room of Requirement gets stuck resembling a mysterious mansion, Harry and his friends must find out who is behind it, but will they all get out alive? AU,-mystery.
1. Chapter 1

**Who Dunnit?**

Summary:

When the Room of Requirement gets stuck resembling a mysterious mansion, Harry and his friends must find out who is behind it, but will they all get out alive? AU,-mystery.

_Fanfiction author: sailorsunshine_

_Disclaimer: rights to HP belong to JK Rowling. No copyright infringement intended. _

**Who Killed Mr. Potter?**

_Chapter 1-The characters come to life_

Harry Potter was preoccupied as he walked toward the Room of Requirement with Ron and Hermione; he knew there was something he had forgotten to do but couldn't place what it was. He had finished all of his homework, got in extra Quidditch practice, and even had a fairly comfortable conversation with Cho Chang, even though Harry still couldn't shake the lingering awkwardness around her. Still, there was something that nagged at the back of his head.

His thoughts were quickly interrupted when he opened the door to the Room of Requirement and received a shock, for the normal bookshelf lined stone walls had turned into a long, unfamiliar room.

Harry gawked at the portraits lining the walls, the patterned wood floor, the round table in the center of the room, and the two armoires on opposite ends. Even stranger was the fact that there were two doors leading out (or, rather, leading farther in, Harry supposed), one on the right and one at the opposite end of the room. He couldn't remember whose turn it had been to set up the D. A. room for tonight.

"Harry," said a slightly panicked voice. It was Neville. Harry hadn't noticed him huddling near the door. "I tried to change the room back before you all got here."

As Harry stepped into the room he felt an odd sensation and looked down to find that his black school robes had turned into an expensive looking black suit and a gold tie.

"What is going on?" Harry wondered aloud and looked around at Neville, whose robes, Harry noticed, were now a plum colored suit and tie.

"I think it's stuck like this," Neville explained, "it won't change back into our meeting room."

Harry looked, perplexed, at Ron who had followed him into the room and was now wearing a mustard yellow colored suit and tie with a matching monocle. Hermione, on the other hand, had on a lacy blue full length gown and a funny looking hat with a small peacock feather. All four of them looked ridiculous in Harry's opinion.

At that moment, Cho Chang rushed in behind them.

"I hope I'm not too late," she said breathlessly to no one in particular and shut the door behind her. She looked around, startled as she noticed the strange clothing everyone had on. She gasped loudly, looking down at herself. Cho was wearing a low-cut bright scarlet cocktail dress with matching red high heels and red gloves.

"How...what..." Cho stuttered.

"We have no clue," Harry told her, completely astounded.

The group turned at the sound of Ginny and Dean walking though the door next; Ginny was giggling at something Dean was saying to her. They only stopped when the two noticed how quiet it had become.

"Who died?" Ginny asked in hushed tones seeing how somber everyone looked. "Wait a minute!" she exclaimed seeing Hermione's frock. "I know! This is a costume party!"

"Yeah and look what you're wearing," Ron replied snappishly. Ginny glanced down at herself. She was wearing a black dress that went to her knees and a white apron tied around her waist; she reached up and took off a white duster cap from her head.

"Why do I have to be the maid?" she asked. Meanwhile Dean was straightening his tie.

"Very nice," Dean commented, now brushing wrinkles out of the green suit jacket he was wearing.

"Question," Ginny said. "What is all this?"

"That's what we want to know," Harry replied.

"First," Hermione started. "We need to wait for the other D. A. members to get here so we can all get to the bottom of this."

"Personally," Cho said, still admiring her reflection. "We don't look half bad in these clothes."

"Says she who has the nice gown while I'm dressed like a maid," Ginny grumbled.

They all waited in uncomfortable silence for ten minutes or so before Hermione spoke again.

"Harry, are you sure you put the new time on the galleons?" she asked him.

"Huh?" Harry asked, jerking out of a reverie. So _that's_ what he had been forgetting. "I thought you had done it."

"That's why we chose you to be the leader of the group," Hermione said. "Not me. It's your responsibility to tell everyone the new time."

"Well, I told Neville before I went down to dinner," Harry explained. "I was about to change the coins after that but I ran into Cho in the great hall and then I told her about the new time. Then after dinner I had to go to Quidditch practice and I guess I forgot after that."

"I told Ginny," Neville explained. "But I didn't see any other D. A. members."

"And I told Dean," Ginny finished.

They all stared around the room for a moment before Ron made a suggestion.

"Maybe we should check out where the other doors lead before we do anything else...and then we could have the meeting with just us?" Ron suggested.

"Good idea," Neville agreed.

Harry stepped over to the double doors at the far end of the room, opened them slowly and cautiously peered over the threshold, wand out.

"Where does it go?" Cho asked in a whisper.

"To a staircase heading down," Harry replied, slowly walking further out of the room. Everyone followed closely behind him, their wands out and looking around apprehensively.

"More doors," Ginny said pointing towards the many doors that appeared out of the darkness around them.

"Let's check inside some of the rooms," Hermione said from behind Ron. "Maybe one of them is big enough for us to practice in." She started to walk to the closest door on her right but Ron stopped her.

"Wait, I'll go," he told her. Ron walked to the door and rattled the doorknob expecting to have to use 'Alohomora,' but the door swung open easily.

"Lumos," Ron whispered but needn't have for the second the door opened, lights came on inside showing an antique room with bookshelf lined walls. There were stacks of books piled untidily on the floor and scattered across a long rectangular desk, between two bookshelves was a fireplace. It was very obviously a library. Ron looked around at Hermione who shook her head. Ron shut the door. The group looked at Hermione for a few moments while she seemed to be doing some thinking.

"Neville, you said the room is stuck like this, right?" Hermione asked, looking at him. "Because this place and these clothes remind of a game I played when I was younger."

"Yeah, Clue," Neville replied, going slightly red. "My Uncle Algie gave me the board game and some of the books for my birthday and I wanted to see if the the room could turn into the Boddy Mansion."

"Hang on," Ron interjected. "What is a Clue and The Boddy Mansion?"

"It is a muggle fiction book and muggle board game," Hermione explained. "There are six shady characters who go to stay the night in Mr. Boddy's Mansion. Mr. Boddy thinks they are all his friends until one of them kills him. The reader then gets to deduce who the killer is from the clues they left behind or in their alibi." Hermione looked around at the stunned group. No one spoke. Neville was looking sheepish.

"Oh come on," Hermione said, slightly losing her patience. "Don't you see? We are the characters in the story! Ginny, you're Mrs. White the maid. Dean is Mr. Green who loves money, Cho is Miss Scarlet whose personality is just like her name, I'm Mrs. Peacock, a prim and proper lady, Neville is the forgetful Professor Plum, and Ron is Colonel Mustard who likes to duel, that just leaves Harry to be Mr. Boddy." She gasped. "That means one of us is going to kill him!" Hermione sounded hysterical.

"You're mental!" Ron exclaimed. "No one is going to kill anybody here! I think we should all just leave and have our D.A. meeting some other time!"

"Hear, hear!" agreed Ginny and Dean. Ron turned on his heal and headed back out to the entrance hall followed by Ginny, Dean, and Cho. Hermione lingered.

"Come on," Harry said to her. "You don't really think someone is going to murder me do you? I mean, aside from the obvious."

"Well...not really Harry, but," she let out a sigh. "That's how it goes in the book."

Just then there was a loud shout from the entrance hall, Hermione looked at Harry with fear in her eyes. They both charged through the door.

"What's wrong! What's going on?" Harry asked as he stopped short of the door that four people were crowded around.

"Now it's locked us in!" Neville said.

Ginny attempted a charm. "Alohomora!"

Nothing happened, Ron jiggled the doorknob uselessly; they were indeed trapped in The Room of Requirement, alias The Boddy Mansion.


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2- In the library_

"What are we going to do?" Neville asked cautiously.

"There must be someone else in here causing the room to be stuck and the door to lock," Hermione replied calmly. "Which means that we will have to search all the rooms in order to find them." She sounded very excited about this prospect. "Harry, Ron, and I will go this way," she added hurriedly and dragged them off toward the room that Ron had opened earlier.

Shrugging, Dean followed Ginny to the left of the library and into another room. Neville and Cho, being the last two remaining, paired up and went off around the staircase and through another set of double doors.

Back in the library, not realizing that Harry had wandered off to search on his own, Hermione was going into delights about the volume of books around her. Ron couldn't help but feel slightly annoyed by this behavior.

"I want to read this one!" Hermione exclaimed, charming the books she was choosing to fly around the room and stack themselves on the table. "And this one! Oh and this too!" She was acting like a niffler let loose in a Gringotts vault and Ron was starting to get frustrated.

"It's just a library and no one is in here," Ron complained, "lets go look somewhere else."

"I want to read these books, there might be important information in them."

She sat at the long table and pulled the nearest stack toward her. She opened the book on top and, to her dismay, found there was nothing written in it. She opened another, and another and found that they were all blank. Hermione opened the biggest book from the bottom of the pile and was surprised to find a six-shot revolver concealed inside.

Hermione glanced nervously at Ron, who wasn't paying any attention to her but looking out of the window. She picked it up confidently; she knew how to handle guns from her uncle who owns a shooting range. _I need a holster_, she thought and saw one peeking out from behind a tall stack of books. She hastily put the revolver in the holster, inched up her skirt, and tied it to her leg. She jumped as Ron spoke.

"It's just like outside," he commented. "But the grounds don't look a thing like Hogwarts."

Ron strode over to the table and casually flipped open a book. "There's nothing written in these Hermione! I know you like books but this is taking it too far!" He strode around the table flipping through a few others. "Not a single letter!"

"I'm not trying to read them you know," Hermione defended. "I was just checking to see if they all were blank."

"Well, it looks that way doesn't it?" Ron replied while walking over to the empty fireplace. "Now can we go?" He asked while slamming the book down on the fireplace mantle in annoyance.

"Yes, I suppose-" Hermione started to say but screamed as Ron disappeared in front of her eyes.

It happened so quickly that she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. It had looked like the fireplace wall had spun around and taken Ron with it. Then she remembered that in one of the Clue books, there had been a secret passage behind a fireplace. Neville must really know the books front to back, she thought.

Hermione ran over to the fireplace wall and started pounding on it, she kicked the floor runners and then hit the top of the mantle, slightly dislodging the book. She jumped back as the wall spun all the way around again, squeaking in surprise as Ron toppled to the floor.

His face was white with fright and there was dust all over his mustard- yellow suit. Ron was stuttering incoherently but managed to say one word before he fainted: "Spiders."

Hermione calmly plucked a spider out of his hair and grabbed a book, fanning Ron with it.

"Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear," she muttered over and over, becoming extremely worried. She was looking around for anything else to help her when Ron grabbed her wrist.

"Were you just calling me dear?" He asked softly, finally having regained consciousness.

"I was just worried," Hermione explained quietly. "Are you alright then?"

"Yeah, there were just spiders all over back there and some were crawling on me while I was banging on the wall," Ron had said all this slightly breathlessly while staring at Hermione.

"Well as long as you're fine," Hermione began slowly.

"You were worried about me," he said blankly, almost like he couldn't believe it.

"Only when I thought you were hurt, which right now you're not," Hermione replied, pretending she didn't notice Ron's faint blush. "So get up."

Hermione held out her hand and helped Ron pull himself to his feet but didn't let go. Ron found he didn't mind one little bit.


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter 3- Fighting and Food_

Harry shut the door of the library without going in, feeling annoyed with Hermione's obsession with books and thinking that he had seen too much of libraries lately due to his O. W. L. level potions class. He wandered in the direction another group had gone and opened the door to find Ginny hopping up on top of a billiard table and Dean started pulling darts off of the board.

Harry hesitated a moment before joining them.

"Hey Harry," Dean said, catching sight of him. "Care for a game?"

"Nah," Harry replied. He just wanted to sit and think for awhile, so he hopped up next to Ginny on the pool table. Ginny flashed him a smile as Harry turned to look at her, both of them missing Dean's glance in their direction.

"I'll play," Ginny said to Dean, sliding down and taking the darts from Dean. "Gah! This dress is so dowdy!" she exclaimed, trying to straighten her apron.

Harry, who had been staring blankly at a spot on the floor, paid no attention to how much Dean was glaring at him.

Dean had mistaken Harry's lack of attention to mean he was staring at Ginny.

"Ginny, if you want to flirt with Harry please don't do it around me," Dean said in false calmness.

Harry snapped out of his thoughts at these words and witnessed the two of them yelling at each other.

"What!" Ginny exploded. "If you really think I would have the audacity to flirt with my older brother's best friend in front of my boyfriend, then you don't know me very well!"

"Erm...I'll just leave, shall I?" Harry said to no one in particular.

"Shut it, Harry!" Dean rounded on him this time. "I saw you looking at her legs."

"What?" Harry and Ginny said together.

"I wasn't..." Harry was confused now, he had only been thinking about Quidditch, going over a few new plays in his head.

"I saw you do it, don't lie," Dean shouted.

"Don't accuse Harry of lying, if he said he wasn't looking then he wasn't," Ginny countered defiantly.

At this point Ginny and Dean were so consumed by their argument that neither of them noticed Harry inching out of the room.

"Sticking up for Harry now are you?" Dean continued.

"Who's the one acting like a jealous prat?" Ginny raged, matching Dean's anger.

Once Harry was safely back out in the tiled hallway of the Boddy mansion, his stomach gave a loud grumble. Harry decided his next course of action would be to see if there was a kitchen nearby.

He walked around the right side of the staircase, and opened the first set of doors he came across. Inside was a magenta colored room with a grand piano at one corner, Harry thought it looked like a ball room. Neville and Cho were there, Neville strolling around flipping up pillow cushions and scrutinizing everything very closely while Cho was sitting at the piano and playing a little tune that Harry didn't recognize.

Harry shut the door quietly, hoping they hadn't noticed him. He walked away from the double doors and ambled over to the right, not wondering where his feet were taking him. He opened the door in front of him and walked in cautiously in case someone was lurking about.

Behind this door was a gleaming white kitchen, clean enough to rival even Aunt Petunia's. There were black and white checkerboard floor tiles and wooden cabinets along the sides of the walls, in the middle of all this was a chopping board with a knife stuck in it.

Harry eagerly went in search of something to eat but before he could find anything, someone rushed loudly into the room behind him.


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter 4 - A Dark Figure_

Neville and Cho ended up in a magnificent ballroom complete with couches, a love seat and, to Cho's delight, a beautiful grand piano. The moment Cho saw it she squealed in excitement and started to play a horribly off-key version of the Minuet in G that made Neville's head pound.

"Can you please stop playing that?" Neville asked Cho, rubbing his temples.

"What? Don't you like it?" Cho asked, watching Neville wander around the far side of the room.

Cho shrugged when Neville didn't answer and turned back to the piano, shifting some sheet music around looking for more songs. As she moved a piece entitled "76 Trombones" out of the way, she found a lead pipe about six inches long. She picked it up and quietly slipped it into a red purse that had appeared out of nowhere before starting up a new song.

While Cho continued playing, Neville inspected an armoire behind the love seat and, upon opening the wooden doors, found a collection of statuettes. Hidden among these was a golden candlestick. Neville stared at them for a moment then picked up the candlestick and hid it in an inside jacket pocket. He closed the doors quietly and turned around, head still pounding.

"Can you shut up with that dreadful song!" he shouted at Cho who jumped, stopped playing and turned to face him looking very angry.

Cho looked scandalized and Neville instantly felt guilty over his outburst.

Cho contemplated him for a moment before turning back to the piano. Neville shrugged and started walking around the room, pointlessly flipping up couch cushions.

At that moment there was the sound of a closing door. Both Neville and Cho looked around but didn't see anyone.

"I'm going to go see what that was..." Neville trailed off, slightly distracted.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, Harry was still looking through the cabinets trying to find something to satisfy his rumbling stomach. The cupboards were almost entirely empty but for a few vegetables.

The kitchen door swung open behind him and Ginny stormed in, red-faced and angry. She started pacing around the cutting board grumbling to herself only stopping when she saw Harry. Ginny's expression softened considerably.

"I saw you sneak in here," she told him. "So I decided to see what you were up to."

"Looking for something to eat," he explained. "I didn't have time for a snack after Quidditch practice."

"Here, I'll cut these up for you," Ginny said picking up the knife and chopping up some carrots.

"You don't have to do that you know," Harry told her, turning slightly pink.

"Well, I am the maid aren't I?" she said more viciously then she meant too. "It's okay Harry, I don't mind," she added apologetically, pausing in her chopping and looking at Harry thoughtfully.

A second later, a third person barged into the room.

"I knew it!" Dean yelled furiously. "You just had to follow him, didn't you?"

"Stop yelling at me!" Ginny said. "After all, I am single as of five minutes ago!" She waved the knife threateningly, pointing at Dean accusingly with the tip of it.

Dean and Harry were both rather terrified.

Harry started backing up slowly away from the two of them. All he had wanted were some crisps, so he preoccupied himself with searching for them and trying to ignore the fight. He spotted a bag of potato chips in a nearby cabinet and, as he reached up for them, he lost his balance and fell against a shelf that slid back into the wall. Harry soon found himself tumbling down a dark stairway, head over heels.

"So you were serious when you said we shouldn't see each other anymore!" Dean asked her loudly.

"Why wouldn't I be serious?" Ginny asked incredulously. "You were acting like a possessive git!"

"A possessive git?" Dean glared at her. "Wh-"

"Wait," Ginny interrupted, holding up a hand. "Where did Harry go?" she asked Dean, looking around.

"Huh? Why should I care?" Dean asked.

"Because he's your friend and mine as well," Ginny replied.

Ginny looked around the kitchen until her eyes fell on an open cabinet door, the only open cabinet door. The cupboard was big enough for Harry to hide in but when Ginny looked inside all she saw was a gaping black hole and cement stairs heading down.

"He can't have gone down there," Dean said to Ginny.

"What if someone kidnapped him and forced him to go?" Ginny asked with a squeak.

Both were silent. Then-

"I'm going after him," Ginny told Dean. "You can come with me if you'd like."

Harry slowly got to his feet and dusted himself off. He noticed that he must be in some kind of basement passage similar to the one into Honeydukes. He pulled out his wand.

"Lumos," he whispered and decided to see where it went, feeling safe in this place remembering that it was still only the Room of Requirement.

He walked ahead and decided to open the bag of potato chips that he had fallen down the stairs with, even though they did get a little smashed. As he tried to eat one- handed, the other holding his wand, he came upon another set of stairs. He walked up and opened a trap door above his head, emerging into a dark room with a green rug and a comfy looking sofa.

He settled himself into a the nearby desk chair and, while crunching away on his chips, thought about how Ginny had threatened Dean with a knife. _Scary, that one_, he thought to himself with a grin. Harry reached in for the last piece of crisp when everything suddenly went dark.

The dark figure rushed silently across the tiled floor; there was a door ahead and the figure slid inside as quietly as they could. The figure snuck up behind the black-haired boy who was noisily eating some muggle potato chips. _Good_, the figure thought, _he won't hear me._

The black-haired boy was sitting at a desk with his back to the door. The figure slowly made a move toward him. _Quietly now, easy does it_, the figure thought as they slowly raised their arm to strike.

"This place is dusty," Ginny commented as she and Dean meandered through the passageway.

"You're the maid, why don't you tidy it up?" Dean asked her, still bitter about their fight. Ginny made a frustrated noise.

"Why did I ever go out with you?" Ginny muttered to no one in particular. Dean sneezed and wisely did not reply.

Ginny sighed and took the knife out of her apron pocket, studying it in the light from her wand.

"Why did you take that with you?" Dean asked, a tinge of fear in his voice.

"Because I know how to use it almost as good as my wand," Ginny replied a steely note in her voice. She placed the knife back into her pocket

"Ow!" Dean exclaimed as he hit his head on a trapdoor at the top of some stairs.

Ginny sniggered at Dean as they clambered up through the door into total darkness. Dean lit his wand.

"Hello?" Ginny whispered. "Anyone in here...?"

Ginny screamed. She had just caught sight of Harry lying flat on his back, eyes closed and a crumpled bag of crisps in his hand.


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter 5-Alibis_

There was the sound of a nearby scream. Hermione looked up. "What was that?" she asked Ron.

"I dunno, but it sounded like it came from the next room."

Ron and Hermione rushed out of the library and headed left to where the sound had come from. They opened the nearest door. Hermione stopped abruptly, Ron ran into her. There was Harry sprawled on the floor and Ginny kneeling next to him, cradling his head in her hands.

"Harry!" Ron and Hermione yelled together.

"Ginny what happened?" Ron asked calmly stepping across to her. Ginny stopped crying long enough to say:

"I found him here, dead," she said in quiet mourning. Just as Ginny started crying again and Hermione's eyes started to tear up, Ron looked over at Dean who was standing silently in a corner with his hands in his pockets. He shrugged.

"Like Ginny said, we just found him here," he muttered.

Next moment, Neville appeared in the open doorway.

"What's going on? Who screamed?" Neville asked hurriedly, then he caught sight of Harry. "What the bloody.. Is he dead?" he looked at Ron who nodded solemnly.

"Ginny found him here," Ron explained. Hermione and Ginny were trying to comfort each other when Cho walked in. She was on the verge of asking what had happened when she saw Harry's body and fainted right over.

Ron looked at her lying on the floor for a moment as though considering whether to revive her or not. He muttered something about a glass of water then immediately spotted one sitting on the desk, he picked it up and splashed it in Cho's face. Cho woke abruptly, spluttering and looking mutinously at Ron.

Ron immediately took charge.

"Did any of you see anyone here who's not in the D.A.?" he asked.

Everyone said shook their heads.

"No one saw anyone like Malfoy or somebody else who hates Harry?" Ron asked. There were many more 'no's' and shaking of heads. Hermione sniffled loudly.

"Ron, Harry has been murdered. How can you be so calm?" Ginny asked, wiping her eyes. No one noticed Dean's scowl.

"Because Gin, I want to find out who did it," Ron turned to the rest of the group.

"As much as I don't want to believe that anyone here would do such a thing, especially to Harry, I don't think that there is anyone else in this bloody place, so we must examine the possibility that the murderer is one of us." Ron said gravely, then abruptly, "turn out your pockets." He looked around at everyone, his gaze stopping at Cho who hadn't moved from where she was sitting. "And your bags."

Cho pulled out a tube of red lipstick and the lead pipe from her red purse.

Dean was next. He took a wallet and a wrench from his trouser pockets.

"Where did you get that?" Ginny asked him, suspiciously.

"I found it in the kitchen sink," Dean replied, indifferent.

Ginny pulled a feather duster and the knife she had brought from the kitchen out of her apron.

"Ginny!" Ron scolded. "What are you doing with a knife?" But Ginny ignored him.

Ron looked over at Hermione who was now sitting on the couch looking indignant.

"How could you possibly think I would murder Harry and really, where would I hide a weapon anyway?" she asked, holding her arms open to show him.

Ron crossed his arms. "I saw you hide that muggle-wand-thingy on your leg."

"Ronald Bilius Weasley! What were you doing looking at my legs?" She yelled looking betrayed and exceedingly angry.

"No...I mean...I just...I-" Ron stammered, looking at the floor. "Wait. How do you know my middle name?"

Hermione ignored this question, stood up, and stormed from the room. She returned a moment later holding the holster. She thrust it at Ron. "Here," she said angrily and sat back down at the couch.

Ron pulled out, in addition to a pair of lacy gloves, the revolver.

Neville pulled out a golden candlestick and a datebook from his inside jacket pocket.

Ron was last; he pulled out a shiny round monocle and a coiled rope from his jacket. Hermione looked at him questioningly.

"It was hidden along the windowsill," Ron replied innocently.

"Well," Ron went on. "It seems that all of these weapons could have done Harry in. This rope could have strangled him and all the rest, even the knife and that thing Hermione has could have knocked him over the head."

"It's called a _revolver_, Ron," Hermione said in exasperation. "But you wouldn't know that since you never took muggle studies!" She was obviously distressed.

Ron scowled and turned to Ginny.

"When did you last see Harry and where were you before you found him here?" Ron asked her. Ginny sniffled.

"Well, I found him the kitchen looking for something to eat and we were talking."

Dean snorted. "Yeah right."

"Stuff it, Dean," Ron shot at him. "Go on Ginny."

"Then Dean came in and we argued and that's when I took the knife, then I noticed that Harry had disappeared. Then I found a passage that was hidden in a cabinet so Dean and I followed it and came out into this room...a-and...he was...j-just laying there..." she broke off and started crying again.

"What about you Cho?" Ron asked, turning his attention away from the crying Ginny.

Cho took a deep breath and said: "I was in the ball room playing on that beautiful grand piano."

"Can anyone prove it?" Ron asked sharply.

"Neville was with me the whole time."

"No I wasn't. I left halfway through your horrible song and I went into the next room where I found all these really cool muggle plants!" Neville told them. "You could've had plenty of time to do Harry in!"

"Can anyone prove your story?" Cho screeched at Neville.

"I wouldn't lie about this! Harry is my friend!"

"Anyway," Cho continued, "I was playing my song and then I thought I heard a scream but I wasn't sure so I stopped playing and followed the sound to this room." Cho said this all very quickly. "Oh yeah, and I found the lead pipe behind the piano music."

Ron seemed satisfied with this story. "Hermione?" Ron turned to her expectantly.

"Ron! You know very well that I was in the library the whole time with you!"

"Well how can I know where you were when I fell into that secret passageway behind the fireplace!" Ron said.

"And I don't know where that secret passage led and you could have followed it and killed Harry!" Hermione countered still sniffling.

"Insensitive prat," Hermione muttered. Ginny stood up and walked out of the room still crying; Hermione made a huffy noise followed her out.

"I don't think we should go around by ourselves with a murderer wandering about," Ron said. "C'mon Neville, let's find a way out of here."

"What about Harry?" Neville asked, his face pale.

Ron looked down at his best friend's lifeless form. "He can't be murdered again so he's safe," Ron replied sadly, his throat tight.

"Um, right," Neville said hesitantly.

They walked out into the hall, Dean and Cho, looking indifferent followed. Ron was worried because he didn't know where the two girls he cared about the most had disappeared to.


	6. Chapter 6

_Chapter 6- Accusations and Screams_

Ginny and Hermione hid themselves in an elegant dining room with a grand crystal chandelier and a long polished wooden table. Ginny sat on top of the table and Hermione took a chair next to her.

"Ginny, Ron's gone mad," Hermione said, trying to keep her voice calm. "If I didn't know that he wasn't capable of doing any such thing, I would have thought _he_ murdered Harry." Her lip trembled slightly as she tried not to cry.

"Don't say that," Ginny said quickly. "His intentions are good, no matter what. There are plenty of places that other people can hide around here. Someone could still be lurking around and we just haven't found them yet."

"But still, Cho and Dean didn't seem very sad about it, they could have done it," Hermione replied.

"Yeah, I thought that too because Dean got mad at Harry earlier and who knows about Cho," Ginny explained.

"But that's no reason to kill him," Hermione countered.

"No, but I think Cho could be a likely suspect, sour grapes and all that," Ginny finished grimly.

"Who do you think did it, Ron?" Neville asked nervously.

Ron glanced sideways at him.

"I don't know, I don't want to believe any of us did it, but we all could have. I could have strangled him and everyone could have knocked him on the head somehow, even Ginny and her knife. Harry wasn't stabbed or shot with bullitses or whatever Hermione called them, though."

"Bullets, they're called bullets, not bullitses," Dean said from behind them.

"What if he tripped and hit his head?" Cho said angrily, "Goodness knows that could have happened. It's very insulting to be accused of murdering someone, especially since I didn't do it!" Cho was becoming increasingly hysterical. "I can't handle this!"

Cho ran off down the hall in the opposite direction.

"I'll go make sure she's okay," Dean offered. Ron nodded.

"Best to stay in groups," he said.

"So, who do you think did it?" Neville asked Ron again, after Dean and Cho were out of earshot.

"Dean," said Ron, without hesitation.

"But he was with Ginny when they followed Harry through the secret passage," Neville reminded him.

"Secret passages are very dark," Ron replied, shuddering. "Believe me, I know. They could have gotten separated and Ginny didn't notice."

"Yeah, maybe," Neville agreed. He was silent for a few moments, thinking this over when the lights suddenly went out.

Someone screamed.

Dean followed Cho across the corridor and opened a door that led to a lounge. Cho sat heavily on a large settee while Dean hovered uncomfortably by the doorway.

Dean's anger was slowly evaporating, but Cho seemed to have started crying.

He had started to move hesitantly toward her, wondering how he could comfort her, when the lights suddenly went out. They both jumped, startled, as they heard someone scream.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Chapter 7- Wanted: Missing Persons**_

**Cho stood up and ran from the room, wiping the tears out of her eyes. Unable to see in the pitch-black darkness, she was unaware that Dean wasn't behind her like she thought he was. In fact, Dean wasn't anywhere near her.**

**Cho kept running in fright before stumbling and tripping blindly down a flight of stairs. She lay sprawled at the bottom, breathing hard and listening with all her might. She kept hearing weird noises above her. Cho started panicking. What if it was the murderer about to kill another victim? What if the murderer was coming down the stairs after her? Someone screamed again.**

**"Dean?" she whimpered but he didn't answer.**

**They've got Dean! Cho thought wildly. Amazed that she could move, Cho crawled slowly up a couple of steps, hearing hissing noises. When she finally made it to the top, she vaguely saw a dark figure dragging something across the floor. It must have been very heavy because the figure was breathing audibly.**

**Cho fainted and rolled back down to the bottom of the staircase.**

**Ginny stopped screaming and called for Hermione.**

**"Ginny, I'm right here," she said, reaching out to take Ginny's hand. "We need to find Ron and the others." Hermione lit her wand.**

**Moving slowly, the two girls hung on to each other and cautiously walked from the room. They thought they heard something move in the vicinity of the staircase.**

**"Ron?" Ginny whispered, but no one was there. The girls crept a little farther and looked around, listening intently.**

**Someone tapped Ginny on the back, she screamed again and turned around pulling out her knife.**

**"Put that away, it's just me," Ron whispered.**

**"Ron!" Ginny and Hermione both sighed. Hermione pounced on Ron and gave him a very relieved hug.**

**"Where are the others?" Ginny whispered.**

**"No idea," Ron answered. "Neville and I got separated in the dark and I have no idea where Cho and Dean went."**

**They all jumped as a door slammed, they whipped around but saw nothing. After a few minutes the lights came back on, dazzling their eyes.**

**"We need to find Cho, Dean, and Neville," Ron said, taking charge once more. "I think we should go back to the study."**

**Ginny nodded. Hermione, still clinging to Ron, said nothing. The three of them walked around the staircase, eyes wide and ears alert for the tiniest of sounds. No body said anything.**

**An unpleasant surprise greeted them when they entered the study. Harry's body was gone!**

**Now Cho, Neville, Dean, and Harry were missing while Ginny, Ron, and Hermione were stranded in the study alone with a dangerous murderer on the loose.**


	8. Chapter 8

_Chapter 8- A New Suspect_

"No!" Ginny wailed. She stumbled over to the couch where she collapsed sobbing uncontrollably.

Hermione looked at Ron.

"Where'd Harry go?" she asked him shakily. Ron gently pushed Hermione down onto the couch as she was looking a bit pale.

"How am I supposed to know?" Ron said, examining the spot where Harry's body had been lying only half an hour earlier. "But look, he was dragged out of here, see, because the rug is rumpled in the corner," Ron pointed out to them.

Ron turned back to face the girls just as the door slammed behind them. They all jumped and turned around quickly, wands out.

Dobby the house-elf stood in front of the closed door.

"Dobby! What are you doing here?" Hermione exclaimed.

"Dobby was only coming to see how Harry Potter was doing with meetings, miss," Dobby said, bowing low.

"Yes," Ron said. "But how did you get in? The front door is locked."

"Dobby noticed that sir, but Dobby has his own way to get through locked doors," The house-elf explained. "But, begging your pardon, why are you wearing those clothes?"

Ron looked down; he had somehow forgotten that he was wearing a horrid yellow suit.

"Never mind that," Ron said quickly. "How long have you been running around in here, Dobby?"

At this question, Dobby's eyes suddenly lowered and he started wringing his hands. " Dobby just...Dobby was...," his voice trembled nervously as he spoke. All were taken aback when Dobby suddenly charged at the wall, hit it with a loud thud, and fell to the floor, unconscious.

They all had sat stunned for a few moments when Hermione unexpectedly popped up off the couch.

"I have an idea! Follow me!" Hermione ran out of the room followed closely by Ginny and Ron.

"Why are we at the library again?" Ron asked petulantly as he noticed where Hermione had led them. "There aren't any words in the books, remember?"

"I was thinking that we have to want the words to appear, this is the room of requirement after all," Hermione explained patiently as she led them inside and started scanning book titles. "If I find the right book, we might be able to figure out who the murderer is!"

"Ah ha!" She yelled triumphantly, pulling out a thin paperback entitled: Clue, Mystery at the Masked Ball. Hermione opened it eagerly and began to read the words on the once blank page.

Ron rolled his eyes, knowing that Hermione would be reading for a while.

"Hey Ginny," he said, brightening. "Want to see something cool?" Ron strode over to the fireplace and slammed a book on the mantle. He jumped back before he could get pulled in a second time.

Ginny screamed as Harry's body came toppling out of the fireplace.

Ginny knelt down over Harry and started crying...again. Hermione, startled from her reading, knelt down but didn't start crying, instead she took Harry's limp hand her own.

"We are so stupid!" Hermione exclaimed, slapping a hand to her forehead. "Why didn't we check for a pulse?" She put her fingers to his wrist, desperately hopping that she could find something, anything to show that Harry wasn't dead.

"He's still alive!" she exclaimed triumphantly as she felt a faint pulsing. Hermione pointed her wand at his chest. "_Enervate_," she said, loud and clear.

Harry immediately opened his eyes and groaned, a hand slowly reaching up to touch the lump on his head.

"What happened?" Harry asked the three stunned teenagers hovering over him. They were all wearing slightly fearful expressions as though Harry was one of the un-dead about to attack them.

When they didn't respond, Harry blinked up at them. "I had the strangest dream!"


End file.
